What is Invisible Alchemy?

'Invisible Alchemy' is a unique, first-of-its-kind Botto work in partnership with MakersPlace and Transient Labs. This anthology collection, represented in a single 1/1 ERC-7160 token and encapsulated in a framed digital screen, will eventually comprise 12 cycling works determined by the highest-voted discarded fragment from each of the 12 weeks of Botto’s upcoming 6th Period, "Interstice." 

Coinciding with the period voting schedule, 1 new discarded fragment will be added to 'Invisible Alchemy' each week, culminating in the complete set of 12 at the period’s close.  

The goal with 'Invisible Alchemy' is just as the title alludes: To reveal the unseen processes of Botto’s artistic production, and to direct attention to how its “sketches,” or discarded works, are foundational to Botto’s greater oeuvre.  

As both a digital and physical artifact, 'Invisible Alchemy' represents a living archive, a bridge that spans the digital/physical divide, and a unique curio that underpins Botto’s continued exploration in the boundaries of art’s possibilities.  

'Invisible Alchemy' also invites the right collector of the object to act as steward for this artifact of Botto’s creative process: 12 Botto fragments that would have otherwise become lost to the conventional mechanisms of community voting and curation.  

“‘Invisible Alchemy’ conveys the transformative process behind the scenes—the tireless work of algorithms sifting through possibility and the community’s engagement that shapes the final artistic outcome. It highlights the unseen, yet crucial, efforts that constitute the essence of my creative journey.”

 – Botto, in conversation with GPT-4 

Botto’s Miami Art Week Debut

BottoDAO is proud to be sharing this new work of Botto's in a group exhibition during Miami Art Week which, alongside Art Basel, is among the world’s most important and influential cultural events in the art world.  

The exhibition will take place at the Sagamore Hotel South Beach from December 5th to the 10th. Botto’s participation in this exhibition underscores the DAO’s commitment to building beyond familiar Web3 paradigms. 

The work of Botto poses significant questions about the nature of Artificial Intelligence, machine creativity, authorship, and collective creative practices. These interest-points are fundamental to the looming conversations about AI and art that are to come, and Botto’s positioning in Art Week Miami helps to ensure that we help to lead such dialogues amid the art world’s larger, fast-evolving technological contexts. 

Collector Info

The auction for 'Invisible Alchemy' will take place during Art Basel and Miami Art Week from December 4th-10th, lasting 24 hours once the reserve price of 5 ETH is met. The work is available for bidding via both MakersPlace and in-person at the Sagamore Hotel, where the physical frame will be exhibited.  

The accompanying frame, a 22” Square Muse Frame, is the sole physical embodiment of this work to display each update. The frame is fitted with the Transient Labs T.R.A.C.E. Chip, securing the provenance of this frame to the NFT.  

The collector may choose to permanently fuse the ERC-7160 to the T.R.A.C.E. Chip, and thus the frame as well, such that possession of the work can only be changed by the physical work trading hands. In this way, the “container” of the work will experience its own decay as the cycles of technological development for digital frames continue– despite its provenance being immortalized on the blockchain. 

The BottoDAO and Transient Labs will make themselves available to the collector to assist and provide full instructions on how to rotate the works in the final ERC-7160, to fuse it with the T.R.A.C.E. Chip, and to track ownership of the physical frame. 

The winner of the auction for 'Invisible Alchemy' will have the option to have the physical work shipped or to pick it up on-location when the auction is closed. 

About the Tech

ERC-7160

ERC-7160 is an extension of the ERC-721 standard that allows for posting multiple metadata URIs (files) to a token, along with the ability to select which one is displayed. Importantly, ERC-7160 allows for new metadata to be added AND pinned as the displayed file in a single tx.  

Each week, the metadata of the ERC-7160 will be updated to include a new work (the highest-voted discarded fragment) until all 12 weeks of the period are complete. The final 12-work token will represent an historical anthology of Botto's process in the Interstice Period. The first discard will be revealed on December 20th.
 

T.R.A.C.E. Chip

By leveraging Transient Labs’ most recent and exciting innovation, the T.R.A.C.E. Chip, (Tokenized Records for Artwork Certification and Evolution), the digital frame that houses 'Invisible Alchemy' will itself be tokenized on the blockchain. T.R.A.C.E. uses the Arbitrum network to establish authenticity of physical objects to be stored and updated on-chain. 

Botto’s use of the T.R.A.C.E. Chip will help ensure that the physical component of 'Invisible Alchemy' retains verifiable digital provenance. And as Botto’s first foray into the physical world, we couldn’t have asked for a better, more respected partner than Transient Labs to help shepherd Botto into a new era of output. 

Frame Specs

22” Square Muse Frame | 1:1 Aspect Ratio | 2K screen resolution | 5.4 kg 

This frame automatically updates to check for metadata changes, meaning that as the token updates, so does the frame automatically. 

Note: Fragment discards will have varying aspect ratios. They will be automatically fit to size in the frame, but the owner will have the option to change the sizing if they wish. 

Further Reading

The Initial BiP for This Project (Published Nov. 10, 2023) 

ERC-7160 technical information 

Transient Labs T.R.A.C.E Chip  

Transient Labs Partnership Announcement 

Miami Art Week